Southern Yosemite Climbing Discussions
Southern Yosemite Categories => Balls Area => Topic started by: John on July 09, 2013, 08:12:48 am
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Please contact me through the site or at john at southernyosemiteclimbing dot com if you have information on any of these routes.
Thank you.
Nightwatch
Old route in face right of Arch-A-Poko/Half Baked and left of Left Ski Track
Tempest
All natural line left of Glee. Old P1 bolted anchor was replaced and integrated into modern route coming in from further left.
Bolted route immediately left of Odyssey ~5.9/10-
Bolted route immediately left of Plate Route ?
Bolted route right of Havana Ball ~5.8
More later.....
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having now driven close to these formations. I would love to hear any stories and see any pics for these areas.
I know Aaron is holding. I'm sure cruxluv has pics too.
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Many formations with differing character - some sorta on the DL and others not so much - but all in plain site and climbed and guided all over since the 60s and maybe earlier. Love it up there.
It's kinda magical that at an area so close to the road, I have next to never run into other climbers. For this reason, and remarkably little shared online for years, I think the Balls have long maintained a bit of mystique.
Kinda hope that doesn't change too much.
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really neat spot. We passed some guys eyeballing the formations. They had some kind of guidebook that I didn't recognize. Figured they might be climbers, so rolled down the window and said hi, but had to keep moving with the caravan since I didn't know where I was driving to.
I might go up there next weekend, now that I think about it. Need to make sure it's kosher with the old lady first.
I have the Spencer guide. That should get me lost enough to have a good time.
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Since Shuteye guide is out I would imagine very few would pass Shuteye unless they wanted some FAs
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Since Shuteye guide is out I would imagine very few would pass Shuteye unless they wanted some FAs
My opinion is that at this point, there are pretty slim pickings for FAs at the Balls. Much has been done in the last decade. A plethora of routes exist, old and newer, that seldom see ascents.
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Nate, can you post up the updates on routes or forward them?
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John is your man. He's likely got a much better compilation and list for the majority of formations. I have a smattering of topos and notes by different folks, not yet compiled in any organized manner.
But you'll take a lot of the fun and adventure out of it by going there with a lot of info in hand instead of just looking at what appeals to your eye and climbing it. :)
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there are pretty slim pickings for FAs at the Balls
:o
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Or not
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Hahaha
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My precious.....(in my shmeagle voice)
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That's funny. Smeagle. And it makes another good eagle name for a route.
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no more Eagle names!!!
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:o
;D
Just one teeny tiny opinion....
from a cave deep under the mountain.
"Wicked, tricksy, false!"
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lol ;D
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http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PKmKYB1yXpY (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PKmKYB1yXpY)
http://www.youtube.com/embed/nLHNJ7vgbYo?autoplay=1 (http://www.youtube.com/embed/nLHNJ7vgbYo?autoplay=1)
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climbed this silly little 5.4 a month ago on our way up to the right side of golden toad looking for the arch route.
photo: NateD
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Vacations/SUMMERFUN/General-Climbing/i-cS957bX/0/b6ed468b/M/golden%20toad%20pic-L.jpg)
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Split, was this new? I don't know if I could ID the line from your detailed pic. Ha!
Did you find Arch Route? Looked pretty dirty going up under the arch.
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Probably been climbed or solo'ed before. After this "approach" climb we went over the right side of golden toad looking for the arch route, actually started climbing an unknown line that I'm glad we bailed from as it was slab with no bolts in sight, but looked like a cool line up the formation.
Then we went farther left and found the arch route. Didn't climb it as it did look dirty and not a obvious line.
some killer boulders up in that zone.
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That brings back memories of exploring over there 25 years ago with my wife one afternoon. I climbed up protectable stuff left of the arch (maybe around a corner), but backed down after about 60 ft. Never went back to look further. I don't recall boulders though, but I didn't boulder much back then at all, so I had eyes only for bigger rocks I suppose.
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Well as luck would have it, I’d have posted closerup photos of the area as I took some shots of it last weekend, but the camera”s gone missing! So bummed! Anyway, There’s this whole sort of cratered-out, triangular recess on the south southeast face of GT which has discontinuous cracks, large and sometimes very steep plated blocks full of chicken heads. I wonder if this is the area of your climb drawn on that photo of Nate’s? Or are you referring more to the southernmost face? We did Eye of the Needle ( name?) once and I enjoyed it though entailed mostly lower angle slab hiking while not eating up the gear (mellow still), after the area of the ‘eye’ climbing which I liked best. Anyway just curious what you did...
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this route is on a separate side flank of the toad. If my wife took a pic of the route, i'll post it.
You top out near these boulders
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Vacations/SUMMERFUN/General-Climbing/i-Vr9pDmT/0/a62682ad/XL/20200516_120106-XL.jpg)
and look left over to the right flank of the toad
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Vacations/SUMMERFUN/General-Climbing/i-3dZGqrC/0/1bfeb57a/XL/20200516_120045-XL.jpg)
here is the start of the arch route, which is more towards the left side of west face.
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Vacations/SUMMERFUN/General-Climbing/i-KZ6vdwx/0/59c73301/X3/20200516_140416-X3.jpg)
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That is definitely the arch...dirty. That right flank picture looks awesome not to mention those boulders.
The ledge just left, like 10', of the arch is pretty big, you could camp up there. On the far left side of the ledge is where 1,000' of Hangerover starts. Goes up and protects in some short crack features before moving left to a book of sorts with some brush in it before topping out on to the big ramp. Then it is mostly long easy slab stuff to eventually finding a hand crack where it steepens again going up right of the arch and left of the gold face. Crack ends into a sea of chicken heads for easy climbing. It is all trad for 5P and a cruiser 5.6 I believe. Paulie and I did it after we got to the base of the arch and didn't like how dirty it looked, last year I think.
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I climbed all over that area many years ago. I have a photo of my wife following somewhere in my pile of photos at my studio. I remember her having trouble following a bomb bay chimney that went under the 'arch' . Dirty...probably 5.5 or 5.6-lars